CommentaryIn the early days of posters, Dresden played, for a short time, an important role. In Oscar Fischer’s poster ›Die alte Stadt‹ contemporaries recognized not only a surmounting of long-outmoded style (Historicism) but also the first evidence of a proper German poster style which could seemingly do without a French model. In Johann Vincenz Cissarz, Dresden found another important poster artist. Dresden was also the town where the first German book on the development of poster art (Jean Louis Sponsel, ›Das moderne Plakat‹, 1897) was published. The art dealership Emil Richter and Ernst Arnold – Sächsische Hof-Kunsthandlung in Dresden had been dealing in posters since the mid-1890’s.

In the early days of posters, Dresden played, for a short time, an important role. In Oscar Fischer’s poster ›Die alte Stadt‹ contemporaries recognized not only a surmounting of long-outmoded style (Historicism) but also the first evidence of a proper German poster style which could seemingly do without a French model. In Johann Vincenz Cissarz, Dresden found another important poster artist. Dresden was also the town where the first German book on the development of poster art (Jean Louis Sponsel, ›Das moderne Plakat‹, 1897) was published. The art dealership Emil Richter and Ernst Arnold – Sächsische Hof-Kunsthandlung in Dresden had been dealing in posters since the mid-1890’s.